What makes Telefunken tubes sound better?

Schubert lived in Germany for a time and is an astute observer. I would be slow to dismiss his observations.

My experience with Germans is limited to the field of organic chemistry in an industrial setting, and further limited to brief customer/client interactions usually by teleconference.

That said, I get the impression there is a pretty strict hierarchy in Germany, and woe to the soul who speaks out of place. The Germans (with good reason) assume no American can speak German, so occasionally, I caught a chemist getting a bit of a scolding and told to shut up in German, with the assumption that we would be oblivious to the scolding.

In the US, there is a hierarchy of a different sort. There are two levels. Those who got PhDs or did post doctoral work at Harvard, and those who didn't. But even that hierarchy isn't absolute. It is my impression that distinct corporate cultures are common in the US, so that generalizations are difficult.

There was a time when the phrase "old world craftsmanship" had real meaning. I'm not sure that phrase has any relevancy now. What I see, and this has been discussed previously in the context of a loss of characteristic distinctions in orchestras across the world, is a homogenization of everything. Everyone benchmarks and conforms to what the next guy is doing. Once I asked one of the chosen ones, "Did you have to go to Harvard to learn how to copy what your competitors have been doing for the last 3 years? Is that all you got? I wish I had a video of the death glare.

In medicine you have white papers, in music, you have traveling conductors and even traveling orchestras, in industry you have benchmarking to define best practices.

If you stand back and look from a difference, it looks like the second law of thermodynamics has cultural and sociological corollaries. What is the musical equivalent of heat death? One note, played ad infinitum by one instrument, without deviation in tone, timbre, dynamics, etc? Minimalism taken to its logical conclusion.

In industry, I suppose we will see all companies marching in lockstep, doing the same things in the same ways, then trying to figure out why they can't beat their competitors- Wait, the Harvard boys have the answer, you need to work harder than everyone else! I need more bricks, and you can't have any straw. Sure is nice being retired!

Does any of this help explain why Telefunken tubes are so good?

Volkswagons aren't so great.

Deutschland uber alles, so to speak, no? I guess Sylvania, RCA and Tung Sol are chopped liver.

Easy Tomcy6---what Shubert means about inclusiveness, about pride vs fear, relates to their workforce and how young tradesmen and women are taken under training early to be included in the tradition of apprentice, journeyman and master levels of craftsmanship. They are then free to take great pride, as they are bound to their trades. Here, there is an accent on competition and on a self-sponsored rise through expensive education and worry about keeping a job.
And as for sharp divisions between rich and poor--that would not be so prevalent in socialist Germany as it is here, where survival of the fittest shapes our social strata into an ever-widening gulf between the rich and poor.

Though preached, no doubt, American culture does not lend itself well to excellence in many ways in practice.

Very little the average Joe is exposed to has much to do with being good at something or achieving excellence. Not a lot to nurture the spirit either other than that we are all free to find our own way when it comes to most matters.

Socialism has its flaws as well.

Still seeking out that perfect world. Hopefully freedom rings.

I have a favorable impression of TElefunken products based on my limited sample over the years. SO that comapny at least seems to be doing something right. I would not generalize it much further than that though.